This blog is dedicated to the African American men and women of Laurens County, Georgia, whose oustanding contributions to their communities, state and nation are unrivaled by any other community of its size in the State of Georgia. Additionally, there are stories of African-American men and women from surrounding counties in East Central Georgia.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

IZOLA WARE CURRY

A Troubled Woman

Izola Ware Curry led a troubled life. Born into a meager existence in Adrian, Georgia in 1916, Izola’s life was a series of troubles. Her marriage was troubled. Her life was troubled. Her mind was troubled. Her mind in turmoil, her reasoning gone, she took a letter opener and plunged it into to the breast of Dr. Martin Luther King. She almost changed the face of America forever.

Izola Ware married James Curry. The couple lived in Savannah until the late thirties when they separated. Izola moved to New York City. She lived on the top floor of a tenement house at 121 W. 122nd Street in Harlem. She worked as a domestic, but in the fall of 1958, she was unemployed.

Izola’s mind, clouded with thoughts of fear, fear of a false enemy, began fail her. For five years, Izola feared the N.A.A.C.P.. She believed that the members of the organization were all Communists. She believed that they were conspiring to keep her from getting and keeping a job. “ They were making scurrilous remarks

about me,” she confessed. She couldn’t point to any specific person, but she was sure that they were after her. Izola moved from place to place to avoid what she saw as persecution. She believe that the N.A.A.C.P. and Dr. King were watching her every move. When the fear became unbearable, she bought a gun.

Izola left her apartment on Friday night to go to the movies. As she approached the intersection of 125th Street and 7th Avenue, Izola noticed a large crowd, which she described as a mob. She walked around them. She heard a band playing music. Someone in the crowd told her it was “this King man.” She didn’t even know his first name: “Arthur or Lucer or something like that.” Izola continued on to the theater. She saw a Tarzan movie that night. Before returning home, Izola stopped by to see a friend she called “Smittie.” Despite telling police officers that she had known him for twenty years, Izola couldn’t remember his last name or very little about him.

Just before three o’clock on Saturday afternoon, September 20, 1958, Izola left her home. She went out to do some shopping. She wasn’t looking for anything in particular, just window shopping. She went inside Blumstein’s Department Store in Harlem, about four blocks from her home. She looked around for a while. Then she saw a crowd gathered around Dr. King, who was doing a book signing at Blumstein’s. His book, “Stride Toward Freedom,” was his account of the boycott he led of the Montgomery, Alabama bus system. Dr. King had been arrested seventeen days before the book signing for failing to obey a police officer. He was released a day later, when his fine was paid by the police commissioner.

Izola told District Attorney Howard Jones, “ I walked up to him and I said to him, you have been annoying me a long time trying to get this children. I have no objection of you getting them in the schools at all, but why torture me? Why torture me? I’m no help to him by killing me. Don’t mean after all Congress is signing

anything. By torturing me, don’t mean Congress is going to sign. I can still get a blood clot from this aggravation today. After that day, Congress isn’t going to sign anything, and I’m just dead.” Her remarks reveal the irrational thoughts running through her mind. When the D.A. asked Izola what Dr. King’s response was, she responded, “ I was drunk in my head, and I don’t know what he said.”

Dr. King remembered Izola asking “Are you Martin Luther King?” “ I answered yes. I was looking down writing and the next minute I felt something sharp forcefully into my chest,” he recalled. Izola reached in her bag, took out a letter opener, closed her eyes, and plunged the opener into Dr. King’s chest. When asked why, she told the D.A. “because after all if it wasn’t him, it would have been me. He was going to kill me,” Izola maintained.

Police officers grabbed Izola. Her bag and its contents fell out into the floor. Besides the usual contents of her purse, Izola also had a white bone handle automatic Italian pistol. She bought the gun in Daytona a year before for twenty-six dollars. She bought it, loaded it, and never took the gun out of her home until that

day. When asked why she took it out that day, Izola told the investigators, “I haven’t got a job and what in world I’m going to do for a living, with their pulling me off the job every day and I’m trying to work and they’re trying to force me to make me drop my head to drink either become a prostitute, and I’m not either one. I was going to protect myself if some of these members attack me. Because I know his members

are you know, following him.” She figured there would be trouble that day, that King or his followers would bother her as they had done before. Mrs. Curry told investigators that she had been to the police precinct on six occasions and had reported her concerns to the F.B.I. and President Eisenhower. She sought restraining orders against people whom she thought were out to get her.

Dr. Theodore Weiss and Dr. John H. Cassity, both qualified psychiatrists, examined Izola. They found her to be a paranoid schizophrenic and consequently incapable of understanding the charges pending against her. Most disturbing to the doctors were signs of confusion, giving irrelevant answers to direct questions. The

doctors reported that the patient fluctuated between occasional fairly logical thinking and very confused illogical thinking.

Dr. King was rushed to Harlem Hospital. From his hospital room three days after he was stabbed, Dr. King issued a statement which harbored no ill will against Mrs. Curry. He hoped that she would get help. He thanked government officials, church leaders, and the thousands of people who sent flowers, cards, and letters.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. recovering in a hospital after an attack on his life.

King saw the event not as an attack on one man, but as an attack of hatred. Before doctors could remove the letter opener could be removed, surgeons studied their options. The dagger had stopped on the surface of King’s aorta. Doctor’s decided to open King’s chest to remove the weapon. Any sneeze may have caused a cut in the aorta and endangered his life. The operation was successful.

Dr. King recovered and went on the lead the Civil Rights Movement for nearly a decade. Invariably the question arises: “What if?” What if Izola had used her loaded pistol? What if Izola had thrust her dagger a little harder? What if Dr. King had died? There would have no March on Washington, no “I Have a Dream” speech, no Selma to Montgomery march. The speculations can be mind boggling. Even Dr. King reflected back on the events of the day and wondered what might have not happened. Izola Curry was committed to the Mattewaan Hospital for the criminally insane for the rest of her life.

To this day few people, if any, know of the whereabouts of Izola Curry, of even if she is alive. Surprisingly, the entire event never happened in the eyes of curious journalists who would have ordinarily cover the case in great detail. Few, if any, photographs of Izola Ware Curry exist.

14 comments:

Great piece, I myself have wondered if the lady is still alive. Being in the history field myself, her presence is one of those great mysteries that I regret no one has looked into researching more in-depth. Good job.

I am currently reading April 4, 1968 - Martin Luther King Jr`s Death and How it Changed America by Michael Eric Dyson. I came across the lady Izola Ware Curry name. Thanks for the information about her on your blog! Whatever happend to this lady? When I googled her name, none of the sites had a death date. Wonder what happen to her? She would be 94 years old now. She may be dead or alive. If anyone find out, I would love to know!

The reason she stabbed him was that they had an affair. This story as it is told is a cover up. She was one of MANY of Kings mistress'. She was crazy but he is not innocent in this incident. Perhaps had he only layed with his wife this would not have happened?

That Sept 20th 2012 comment is a despicable smear. There is zero evidence of any connection between them whatsoever, and it is police officers and a judge who arrested her. It's hard to even know what the motive of the Sept 20th commenter is.

I am writing a paper on Izola Ware Curry and her attempted assassination of Martin Luther King. I would be interested in additional information that you might have available. Thank you in advance for your kind assistance.

I have always been fascinated by this MLK story, and am really looking forward to the documentary being released. I have done a lot of checking on my own through internet research on what happened to Izola Curry after she was committed to an institution; and essentially (like everyone else) came up empty. However, I recently ran her name through PeopleSmart.com, one of those sites you can use to track people, and typed in her name. I got a response for someone with that name still living at age 98 (which would match that of the Izola Curry in the story). I signed up for a free trial membership on the site; and learned that her address was 182-15 Hillside Avenue in Jamaica, Queens. I did some cross-checking; a place called Hillside Manor, which is a long-term residential care facility, is at that address. Interestingly, I never was able to get this information after using many other people search websites. The address was listed as of 2010; I have also conducted searches on the Social Security Death Index, and can find no record of Ms. Curry having passed away. It would be interesting to see if one called the facility, asked if an Izola Curry resides there, and (if so) requested an interview and see what happens. Please let me know how the paper comes along or if this helps at all.

While again conducting an every-few-years search for Curry, a TSG reporter discovered that an “Izola Curry” had registered to vote from a Queens address three months before the 2012 presidential election. A copy of Curry’s voter application form, obtained from the New York City Board of Elections, includes a Hillside Avenue home address and is stamped “NURSING HOME.” Most importantly, the document also lists the voter’s date of birth as June 14, 1916--identical to that of the “demented black woman” who tried to murder King.

Izola Curry, TSG discovered, has been living in Queens for about 40 years. While residing in predominantly African-American communities, she appears to have generated little, if any, notice. Which is understandable, since the details of King’s stabbing--let alone the name of his attacker--are largely lost to history. In fact, most Americans would be unable to name the man who actually succeeded in assassinating the civil rights leader.

Curry (seen at left) now resides in the Hillside Manor nursing home in Jamaica, a no-frills facility with 300 beds on bustling Hillside Avenue. The 98-year-old lives in a small room with a twin bed that looks out onto a rear parking lot. Next to her bed is a walker and a side table that appears to hold the entirety of her possessions--a stack of books, a couple of framed photos, and a small pink stuffed animal.